A surprise twist during a recent episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race: Down Under prompted one of the eliminated queens to sound off on Twitter about what she saw as a step backwards for diversity. RuPaul’s Drag Race may have won top honors at MTV’s Reality TV Awards, but there are many fans and former contestants who have noticed a disturbing trend in the fandom and way the show is produced. Coco Jumbo is one such queen who decided to throw a little shade at the franchise for the choices it has made.
RuPaul’s Drag Race: Down Under shocked fans by playing the Snatch Game in the season’s second episode. One of the frontrunners, Art Simone, gave a terrible performance on RuPaul's Drag Race: Down Under and, in a shocking elimination, was sent home by Coco. Although she won her lip-sync with Art, Coco was sent home in the next episode. At the start of episode four, however, RuPaul surprised the queens by bringing Art back into the competition. At the time, there had been three queens eliminated, and Coco took issue with who RuPaul selected to return.
Fans were surprised that Art was brought back, since it’s a twist usually reserved for RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars seasons. However, many noticed that Art was the only white contestant among the eliminated queens. In the inaugural season of RuPaul’s Drag Race: Down Under, only two queens represented the Indigenous and Aboriginal people of Australia: Jojo Zaho (who went home first) and Coco. On Twitter, Coco called out the show for its racial favoritism, sarcastically saying, “Give the white girl another go she deserves it!”
It’s definitely disappointing that the only Indigenous queens this season went home so early and that, given the chance to bring back one of the eliminated queens, RuPaul picked the one who was white. Many fans have criticized the franchise for this kind of preferential treatment, but some of the queens have pointed right back at the fans. Canada’s Drag Race winner Priyanka has called out the fan base for not supporting queens of color as much as white queens. The fans certainly have a racial bias, but it’s starting to feel like the production does too.
Coco wasn’t wrong to call out RuPaul’s Drag Race: Down Under on its lack of diversity. Only two queens of color were represented, and they got the boot early and did not get the opportunity to return to the competition the way Caucasian queen Art did. The franchise has tackled deep issues before, but production may want to take a look in the mirror and ask themselves, especially for the Australian/New Zealand spin-off, if they’re really doing everything they can to lift up marginalized people and voices.
Source: Coco Jumbo/Twitter